Imagine electronics that aren't stiff boards, but as flexible as a piece of plastic or fabric. Instead of gluing rigid silicon chips onto flexible sheets, this project builds the entire brain of the device out of flexible materials from the start. It's like moving from a rigid Lego house to one made of flexible rubber that can bend without breaking.
Traditional flexible electronics rely on rigid silicon chips glued to flexible plastic, which is too bulky, expensive, and environmentally damaging for mass-market healthcare and consumer goods.
A flexible microcontroller unit (FlexMCU) based on RISC-V and a hybrid complementary low-power thin-film transistor technology.
If you are a medical device manufacturer dealing with bulky, rigid sensors that irritate patients — this project developed a Natively Flexible Integrated Smart System (NFISS) that allows for truly conformable, low-power health monitors.
If you are a smart packaging company dealing with high costs of silicon chips for mass-market items — this project developed a flexible microcontroller (FlexMCU) that reduces setup costs and environmental footprint by 100-1000x.
If you are a wearable tech brand dealing with the 'valley of death' between a prototype and mass production — this project developed a low-cost flexible chip fab process that lowers the financial barrier to enter production.
The project aims to lower setup costs significantly compared to traditional silicon developments, specifically helping SMEs bridge the gap from proof of concept to production.
The vision is designed for high-volume, low-cost production using a sustainable flexible chip fab, though current results are focused on proof-of-concept validation.
Based on available project data, the FlexMCU uses an open-source RISC-V based processor, though the specific licensing for the proprietary TFT technology is not mentioned.
It replaces 'hybrid integration' (silicon on flexible substrates) with a fully flexible system including analogue circuitry, digital logic, and memories.
The project runs from 2024-01-01 to 2027-12-31, suggesting the technology will be in the validation phase by the end of 2027.
The consortium is research-heavy, consisting of 6 partners across 6 countries (BE, DE, FR, IE, KR, UK). With only 1 industry partner and 1 SME (17% industry ratio), the project is currently driven by academic and research institutions, indicating a focus on fundamental technology breakthroughs rather than immediate commercial rollout.
Contact the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven research office regarding the GRASP project.
Contact us to identify potential licensing opportunities for the FlexMCU technology.
